Thursday, April 21, 2016
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Brain circuit that helps us adapt to change fades with age, study finds Key points: Brain circuit called the striatum deteriorates with age Decreased activity in this circuit reduces ability to develop new strategies to meet goals Keeping brain active key to healthy ageing
Brain circuit that helps us adapt to change fades with age, study finds
Key points:
- Brain circuit called the striatum deteriorates with age
- Decreased activity in this circuit reduces ability to develop new strategies to meet goals
- Keeping brain active key to healthy ageing
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Black Elk Speaks
Black Elk quotes
“The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.”
― Black Elk
“The Holy Land is everywhere”
― Black Elk
“Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that one.”
― Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks
“Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of the little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.”
― Black Elk
“Behold this day. It is yours to make.”
― Black Elk
“Any man who is attached to things of this world is one who lives in ignorance and is being consumed by the snakes of his own passions”
― Black Elk
“You have noticed that the truth comes into this world with two faces. One is sad with suffering, and the other laughs; but it is the same face, laughing or weeping. When people are already in despair, maybe the laughing face is better for them; and when they feel too good and are too sure of being safe, maybe the weeping face is better for them to see.”
― Black Elk
“All over the sky a sacred voice is calling your name.”
― Black Elk
“It is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost”
― Black Elk
“There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which... is within the souls of men.”
― Black Elk
“Peace will come to the hearts of men when they realize their oneness with the universe, It is every where.”
― Black Elk
“I did not see anything [New York 1886] to help my people. I could see that the Wasichus [white man] did not care for each other the way our people did before the nation's hoop was broken. They would take everything from each other if they could, and so there were some who had more of everything than they could use, while crowds of people had nothing at all and maybe were starving. This could not be better than the old ways of my people.”
― Black Elk
“While I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw;
For I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being....And I saw that it was holy”
― Black Elk
“Know the Power that is Peace.”
― Black Elk
“I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream...”
― Black Elk
“It is hard to follow one great vision in this world of darkness and of many changing shadows. Among those men get lost.”
― Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks
“When a vision comes from the thunder beings of the west, it comes with terror like a thunder storm; but when the storm of vision has passed, the world is greenier and happier; for wherever the truth of vision comes upon the world, it is like a rain. The world, you see, is happier after the terror of the storm.”
― Black Elk
“Every little thing is sent for something, and in that thing there should be happiness and the power to make happy. Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus we should do, for this was the wish of the
Grandfathers of the World.”
― Black Elk
“there can be no power in a square”
― Black Elk
“I knew that the real was yonder and that the darkened dream of it was here.”
― Black Elk
“And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.”
― Black Elk
“At the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit. And that center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.”
― Black Elk
“This they tell, and whether it happened so or not I do not know, but if you think about it, you can see that it is true.”
― Black Elk
“Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus we should do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.”
― Black Elk
“The world, you see, is happier after the terror of the storm.”
― Black Elk
Black Elk Speaks
Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
by John G. Neihardt
“Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that one.”
― Black Elk
“You have noticed that the truth comes into this world with two faces. One is sad with suffering, and the other laughs; but it is the same face, laughing or weeping. When people are already in despair, maybe the laughing face is better for them; and when they feel too good and are too sure of being safe, maybe the weeping face is better for them to see.”
― Black Elk
“It is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost”
― Black Elk
“I did not see anything [New York 1886] to help my people. I could see that the Wasichus [white man] did not care for each other the way our people did before the nation's hoop was broken. They would take everything from each other if they could, and so there were some who had more of everything than they could use, while crowds of people had nothing at all and maybe were starving. This could not be better than the old ways of my people.”
― Black Elk
“It is hard to follow one great vision in this world of darkness and of many changing shadows. Among those men get lost.”
― Black Elk
Wade Davis: Cultures at the far edge of the world
With stunning photos and stories, National Geographic Explorer Wade
Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world's indigenous
cultures, which are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate.
Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world's indigenous
cultures, which are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate.
Link: https://youtu.be/bL7vK0pOvKI
http://www.ted.com
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Writer's Philosophy
My Philosophy of Blogging
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or to be the mirror that reflects it.
- Edith Wharton
Ms. Wharton sums up how I think of blogs. My desire is to reflect the articles and pictures that inspire me when surfing the Web by posting them on my blogs. Blogs create a scrapbook of events to review later inspiring me for a second time. This is a great pleasure and an educational activity providing me with learning missed when I was in school. The Web has demonstrated its great value in generating and spreading new ideas. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Occupy Wall Street and other revolutions have gained momentum on the Web.
If you have a favorite cause like animal rights, you can play a part in education the world by posting to your blog. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.
"To read means to borrow; to create out of one's reading is paying off one's debts."
- Charles Lillard
Communicating my worldview, as seen from my backwater home town situated on an island in the Pacific, is my way of staying engaged with current events. Multiple Sclerosis has reduced my physical energy and keeps me close to home so I need to adapt and find new ways of relating to the world at large.
Friday, March 11, 2016
Dance
“Dance is a continuation. You can't predict the signs of its evolution” - George Balanchine http://bit.ly/Balanchine-fb
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Tasker
Piero Raimondi
"Time moves in one direction, memory in another."
William Gibson
Traceyanne McCartney
Rovina Cai.
Neil G - Poet
There are cemeteries that are lonely,
graves full of bones that do not make a sound
Neruda
Monument:TurinCemetery
::::::::........ Martina Havlová
::::::::::.......... #photography
Ksenija
SIMONA BERTOLOTTO #photography
@piraco75
goth librarian
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
The Real Secret to Changing Your Life
If you’ve already broken a New Year’s resolution or two, take heart. I can let you in on the ultimate secret for successfully making change in your life.
A century’s worth of psychological research reveals an interesting paradox in who we are. On the one hand, once we reach adulthood our basic personalities remain unchanged for the rest of our lives. We keep doing the same things—and feeling the same ways—over and over. But, on the other hand, every day we change our behavior drastically in response to different environments. Most of us are one person at work, for example, and another person at home.
The implication of these findings for making (and keeping) New Year’s resolutions is clear:
It is easier to change our environment than to change ourselves. So, if you want to change yourself, change your environment.
Said differently:
Whenever possible, don’t try to fight temptations – avoid them!
The easiest way to make a change in your life is to modify the world around you in ways that will naturally drive you toward making, and maintaining, the change you want. There are many ways to change your environment, but let’s focus on 4 that have stood the test of time:
1. Nature hates a vacuum: In the context of changing your life, this means you can’t just get rid of something that is an important part of your life and leave a big emptiness in its place. This is one of the great secrets of Alcoholics Anonymous: you substitute the location of a bar and the company of fellow drinkers with an AA meeting in the company of people committed to sobriety. If you want to exercise instead of watch TV in the morning, put a treadmill in the spot where your TV once sat. If you eat too much at night because you are lonely and it briefly makes you feel better, do something in the evening where food is not available and eat earlier in the day so you don’t starve.
2. Make it easy: It is hard enough to change habits or behaviors, so don’t make it any harder. Let’s take me as an example. I’ve been trying for several years to lose weight but always failed due to two problem behaviors: once I start eating a meal I can’t stop myself from eating more than I should; and, although I do pretty well during the day, in the evening I invariably break down and eat more than I should. So how have I lost 10 pounds recently? By going with these weaknesses and modifying my environment in ways that allow me to succeed in spite of them. Because I can’t regulate what I eat very well once I start, I’ve limited how often I eat – which means fasting for a good portion of the day. Because it isn’t practical to fast at night given a family at home (and my weakness for eating at night), I fast during the day when the environment makes it easy. I’ve changed my environment so that I avoid restaurants at lunch and make sure I keep focused on work during the peak time of my midday hunger. A final note on this strategy: you have to accept a blow to your pride to find ways to work with your weaknesses instead of against them.
3. Skin in the game: Recent studies are suggesting that you can use monetary rewards and punishments to help change problematic behavior. In essence, these strategies require that you change your environment in ways that make it so painful to fail that you are motivated to stick with the change you are attempting. Let’s take dieting/weight loss as an example. Imagine that you’ve set up your environment such that you will have to pay money to something or someone if you fail to reach your goals (some people have found it especially effective for the money to go to a cause they hate). How much money would need to be on the line to motivate you to shed those extra 20 pounds? Would the threat of losing $ 10,000 keep you focused on succeeding?
4. Don’t do it alone: Change is infinitely easier if you are surrounded by a group of people who are working toward a similar goal and can understand your challenges. And the opposite is also true: change is much harder if you spend your time with people who encourage, or participate in, the very activities or behaviors you are trying to overcome.
The fact that it is easier to change your environment than to change yourself comes with a final bonus. It means that if you are struggling to make the change you want in your life, it is important not to blame yourself, or beat yourself up, but to recognize that you simply have not found the right strategy yet for leveraging the power of the world around you.
Important:
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Sunday, January 24, 2016
Friday, January 15, 2016
The Science and Practise of Happiness
Uploaded on Jul 1, 2011
Is happiness a skill? Modern neuroscientific research and the wisdom of ancient contemplative traditions converge in suggesting that happiness is the product of skills that can be enhanced through training and such training exemplifies how transforming the mind can change the brain.
Kent Berridge, Richie Davidson, and Daniel Gilbert speak at the Aspen Ideas Festival
.
Living with a sense of purpose in life
Conclusion:
A sense of purpose in life also gives you this considerable advantage:
The conclusions come from over 136,000 people who took part in 10 different studies.
The US studies asked people:
- how useful they felt to others,
- about their sense of purpose, and
- the meaning they got out of life.
The Japanese studies asked people about ‘ikigai’ or whether their life was worth living.
The participants, whose average age was 67, were tracked for around 7 years.
During that time almost 20,000 died.
But, amongst those with a strong sense of purpose or high ‘ikigai’, the risk of death was one-fifth lower.
Despite the link between sense of purpose and health being so intuitive, scientists are not sure of the mechanism.
Sense of purpose is likely to improve health by strengthening the body against stress.
It is also likely to be linked to healthier behaviours.
Dr. Alan Rozanski, one of the study’s authors, said:
“Of note, having a strong sense of life purpose has long been postulated to be an important dimension of life, providing people with a sense of vitality motivation and resilience.
Nevertheless, the medical implications of living with a high or low sense of life purpose have only recently caught the attention of investigators.
The current findings are important because they may open up new potential interventions for helping people to promote their health and sense of well-being.”
This research on links between sense of purpose in life and longevity is getting stronger all the time:
No matter what your age, then, it’s worth thinking about what gives your life meaning.”
- “A 2009 study of 1,238 elderly people found that those with a sense of purpose lived longer.
- A 2010 study of 900 older adults found that those with a greater sense of purpose were much less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
- Survey data often links a sense of purpose in life with increased happiness.
Read More:
Find out what kinds of things people say give their lives meaning.
Here’s an exercise for increasing meaningfulness
And a study finding that feeling you belong increases the sense of meaning.
The study was published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine (Cohen et al., 2015).
A sense of purpose in life
Link: http://www.spring.org.uk/2015/12/here-is-why-a-sense-of-purpose-in-life-is-important-for-health
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Tips to Stay Smart, Sharp, and Focused
Tips to Stay Smart, Sharp, and Focused
Your daily habits can have a big impact on your memory, focus, and mood. Here's what to do to help keep your mind sharp.
Mix Things Up
Remember trying to talk backwards as a child? Researchers at Duke University created exercises they call "neurobics," which challenge your brain to think in new ways. Since your five senses are key to learning, use them to exercise your mind. If you're right-handed, try using your left hand. Drive to work by another route. Close your eyes and see if you can recognize food by taste.Work Out to Stay Sharp
Exercise, especially the kind that gets your heart rate up like walking or swimming, has mental pluses, too. Although experts aren't sure why, physical activity might increase the blood supply to the brain and improve links between brain cells. Staying active can help memory, imagination, and even your ability to plan tasks.A Healthy Diet Builds Brainpower
Do your brain a favor and choose foods that are good for your heart and waistline. Being obese in middle age makes you twice as likely to have dementia later on. High cholesterol and high blood pressure raise your chances, too. Try these easy tips:- Bake or grill foods instead of frying.
- Cook with "good" fats like oils from nuts, seeds, and olives instead of cream, butter, and fats from meat.
- Eat colorful fruits and veggies.
Watch What You Drink
You know that too many drinks can affect your judgment, speech, movement, and memory. But did you know alcohol can have long-term effects? Too much drinking over a long period of time can shrink the frontal lobes of your brain. And that damage can last forever, even if you quit drinking. A healthy amount is considered one drink a day for women and two for men.Music Helps Your Brain
Thank your mom for making you practice the piano. Playing an instrument early in life pays off in clearer thinking when you're older. Musical experience boosts mental functions that have nothing to do with music, such as memory and ability to plan. It also helps with greater hand coordination. Plus, it's fun -- and it's never too late to start.Make Friends for Your Mind
Be a people person! Talking with others actually sharpens your brain, whether at work, at home, or out in your community. Studies show social activities improve your mind. So volunteer, sign up for a class, or call a friend.Stay Calm
Too much stress can hurt your gray matter, which contains cells that store and process information. Here are some ways to chill:- Take deep breaths.
- Find something that makes you laugh.
- Listen to music.
- Try yoga or meditation.
- Find someone to talk to.
Sleep and the Brain
Get enough sleep before and after you learn something new. You need sleep on both ends. When you start out tired, it's hard to focus on things. And when you sleep afterward, your brain files away the new info so you can recall it later. A long night's rest is best for memory and your mood. Adults need 7-8 hours of sleep every night.Memory Helpers
Everybody spaces out now and then. As you get older, you may not remember things as easily as you used to. That's a normal part of aging. Some helpful hints:- Write things down.
- Use the calendar and reminder functions in your phone, even for simple things (Call Dad!).
- Focus on one task at a time.
- Learn new things one step at a time.
The Name Game
Have trouble recalling names? Always repeat a person's name while you're talking to them -- at least in your head, if not out loud. Or invent a funny image or rhyme that you link with their name. For example, think of Bob bobbing out in the ocean.
Link: http://www.webmd.com/brain/ss/slideshow-fit-brains?ecd=wnl_men_120115&ctr=wnl-men-120115_nsl-ld-stry_desc&mb=%2fYEUKcm5jBiihqPGg%2fPGD2dEpmNqbUHLAOXXq3hWp98%3d
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